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HE RIME OF THE 
ANCIENT MARINER 



By SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 




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progresstve Scbool Classics 

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT 
MARINER 



BY 



SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 



Edited with 

Biographical Sketch, Portrait, and Notes 

by 

HELEN WOODROW BONES 




CHICAGO 
BECKLEY-CARDY COMPANY 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 



The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone: 
He cannot choose but hear; 
And thus spake on that ancient man, 
The bright-eyed Mariner. 



20 



The Mariner 
tells how the 
ship sailed 
southward 
with a good 
wind and fair 
weather, till it 
reached the 
Line. 



* * The ship was cheered, the harbor cleared ; 

Merrily did we drop 

Below the kirk, below the hill, 

Below the lighthouse top. 

*'The sun came up upon the left, 
Out of the sea came he ! 
And he shone bright, and on the right 
Went down into the sea. 

** Higher and higher every day. 

Till over the mast at noon — " 

The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast. 

For he heard the loud bassoon. 



25 



The bride hath paced into the hall, 
Red as a rose is she ; 



The Wedding- 
Guest heareth 
the bridal 
music; but the 

unuith^'hisVaie. Noddiug their heads before her goes 



The merry minstrelsy. 



35 



The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast, 
Yet he cannot choose but hear ; 
And thus spake on that ancient man 
The bright-eyed Mariner. 



4U 



The ship driven 
by a storm 
toward the 
south pole. 



''And now the Storm-blast came, and he 
Was tyrannous and strong: 
He struck with his o'ertaking wings, 
And chased us south along. 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 5 

"With sloping masts and dipping prow, 45 

As who pursued with yell and blow 

Still treads the shadow of his foe, 

And forward bends his head, 

The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast. 

And southward aye we fled. 50 

**And now there came both mist and snow, 

And it grew wondrous cold: 

And ice, mast-high, came floating by, 

As green as emerald. 



The land of ice. 
and of fearful 
sounds, where 
no living thing 
was to be seen. 



' ' And through the drifts the snowy clif ts 
Did send a dismal sheen : 
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken — 
The ice was all between. 



55 



"The ice was here, the ice was there. 

The ice was all around : 

It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, 

Like noises in a swound ! 



Till a great sea- <'At length did cross an Albatross, 

bird, called the ^ ' 

fh^o^ugh'the^""^ Through the fog it came ; 

waTrec^eTytd"^ As if it had becu a Christian soul, 

and h^^slfitauty. Wc hailed it in God's name. 



65 



"It ate the food it ne'er had eat. 
And round and round it flew. 
The ice did split with a thunder-fit; 
The helmsman steered us through ! 



70 



And lo! the 
Albatross 
proveth a bird 



"And a good south wind sprung up behind; 
The Albatross did follow, 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 



til' f;:c>ti(l omen, 
and followeth 
the ship as it 
returned north- 
ward through 
fog and 
floating ice. 



And every day, for food or play, 
Came to the mariners ' hollo ! 

''In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud. 

It perched for vespers nine; 

Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white, 

Glimmered the white moon-shine." 



75 



The ancient 
Mariner 
inhospitably 
killeth the 
pious bird of 
good omen. 



' ' God save thee, ancient Mariner ! 
From the fiends, that plague thee thus! — 
Why look'st thou so?" — ''With my cross-bow 
I shot the Albatross ! ' ' 



PART II 

*'The Sun now rose upon the right: 

Out of the sea came he. 

Still hid in mist, and on the left 85 

Went down into the sea. 

"And the good south wind still blew behind. 

But no sweet bird did follow. 

Nor any day for food or play 

Came to the mariners' hollo! 9o 



His shipmates 
cry out against 
the ancient 
Mariner, for 
killing the bird 
of good luck. 



But when the 
fog cleared off, 
they justify the 
same, and thus 
make them- 
selves accom- 
plices In the 
crime. 



"And I had done a hellish thing. 

And it would work 'em woe : 

For all averred, I had killed the bird 

That made the breeze to blow. 

Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay, 95 

That made the breeze to blow! 

"Nor dim nor red, like God's own head, 

The glorious Sun uprist: 

Then all averred, I had killed the bird 

That brought the fog and mist. 100 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 



'T was right, said they, such birds to slay, 
That bring the fog and mist. 



The fair breeze 
continues; the 
ship enters the 
Pacific Ocean, 
and sails north- 
ward, even till 
it reaches the 
Line. 



''The fair breeze blew^ the white foam flew, 

The furrow followed free; 

We were the first that ever burst 

Into that silent sea. 



105 



The ship hath 
been suddenly 
becalmed. 



''Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, 

'T was sad as sad could be ; 

And we did speak only to break 

The silence of the sea! no 



And the Alba- 
tross begins to 
be avenged. 



"All in a hot and copper sky, 
The bloody Sun, at noon. 
Right up above the mast did stand, 
No bigger than the Moon. 

"Day after day, day after day, 
We stuck, nor breath nor motion; 
As idle as a painted ship 
Upon a painted ocean. 

"Water, water, everywhere, 
And all the boards did shrink ; 
Water, water, everywhere. 
Nor any drop to drink. 

"The very deep did rot: Christ! 
That ever this should be ! 
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs 
Upon the slimy sea. 

"About, about, in reel and rout 
The death-fires danced at night; 



115 



120 



125 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 



A Spirit had 
followed them; 
one of the in- 
visible inhabi- 
tants of this 
planet, neither 
departed souls 
nor angels: 
concerning 
whom the 
learned Jew, 
Josephus. and 
the Platonic 
Constantino- 
polltan. Mi- 
chael Psellus, 
may be con- 
sulted. They 
are very nu- 
merous, and 
there is no cli- 
mate or ele- 
ment without 
one or more. 

The ship- 
mates, in their 
sore distress, 
would fain 
throw the 
whole guilt on 
the ancient , 
Mariner: in 
sign whereof 
they hang the 
dead sea-bird 
round his neck. 



The ancient 
Mariner be- 
holdeth a sign 
in the element 
afar off. 



The water, like a witch's oils, 
Burnt green, and blue and white. 

''And some in dreams assured were 
Of the Spirit that plagued us so ; 
Nine fathom deep he had followed us 
From the land of mist and snow. 

''And every tongue, through utter drought, 
Was withered at the root ; 
We could not speak, no more than if 
We had been choked with soot. 

" Ah ! well a-day ! what evil looks 
Had I from old and young! 
Instead of the cross, the Albatross 
About my neck was hung." 

PART III 

"There passed a weary time. Each throat 

Was parched, and glazed each eye. 

A weary time! a weary time! 

How glazed each weary eye, 

When looking westward, I beheld 

A something in the sky. 



130 



135 



140 



145 



"At first it seemed a little speck, 
And then it seemed a mist ; 
It moved and moved, and took at last 
A certain shape, I wist. 



150 



"A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist! 
And still it neared and neared: 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 



As if it dodged a water-sprite, 

It plunged and tacked and veered. 



155 



At its nearer 
approach, it 
seemeth him to 
be a ship; and 
at a dear ran- 
som he freeth 
his speech 
from the bonds 
of thirst. 



A flash of 
joy; 



''With throats unslaked, with black lips baked, 

We could nor laugh nor wail; 

Through utter drought all dumb we stood! 

I bit my arm, I sucked the blood, leo 

And cried, 'A sail! a sail!' 

' ' With throats unslaked, with black lips baked, 

Agape they heard me call: 

Gramercy ! they for joy did grin, 

And all at once their breath drew in, i65 

As they were drinking all. 



' ' ' See ! see ! ' I cried, ' she tacks no more ! 
Hither to work us weal; 



And horror 

follows. For 

can it be a ship -.i , i-i 

that comes on- Witliout a breczc, witliout Q. tide, 

ward without 
wind or tide? 



She steadies with upright keel!' 



170 



*'The western wave w^as all a-flame : 

The day was w^ell nigh done! 

Almost upon the western wave 

Eested the broad bright Sun ; 

When that strange shape drove suddenly 

Betwixt us and the Sun. 



175 



It seemeth 
him but the 
skeleton of 
a ship. 



"And straight the Sun was flecked with bars, 

(Heaven's Mother send us grace!) 

As if through a dungeon-grate he peered 

With broad and burning face. iso 



''Alas (thought I, and my heart beat loud) 
HoAV fast she nears and nears ! 



10 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 



Are those her sails that glance in the Sun, 
Like restless gossameres? 



And its ribs are ''Are those her ribs through which the Sun i85 



seen as bars on 
the face of the 
setting- Sun. 
The Specter- 
Woman and 
her Death- 
mate, and no 
other on board 
the skeleton- 
ship. 



Like vessel, 
like crew! 



Did peer, as through a grate? 
And is that Woman all her crew? 
Is that a Death? and are there two? 
Is Death that woman's mate? 

''Her lips were red, her looks were free. 

Her locks were yellow as gold : 

Her skin was as white as leprosy, 

The Night-mare Life-in-Death was she, 

Who thicks man's blood with cold. 



190 



Death and 
Life-in-Death 
have diced for 
the ship's 
crew, and she 
(the latter) 
winneth the 
ancient 
Mariner. 



"The naked hulk alongside came. 

And the twain were easting dice; 

' The game is done ! I 've won ! I 've won ! ' 

Quoth she, and whistles thrice. 



195 



No twilight 
within the 
courts of the 
Sun. 



' ' The Sun 's rim dips ; the stars rush out : 
At one stride comes the dark ; 
With far-heard whisper, o'er the sea. 
Off shot the specter-bark. 



200 



At the rising 
of the Moon, 



"We listened and looked sideways up! 

Fear at my heart, as at a cup, 

My life-blood seemed to sip ! 205 

The stars were dim, and thick the night, 

The steersman's face by his lamp gleamed white; 

From the sails the dew did drip — 

Till elomb above the eastern bar 

The horned IMoon, with one bright star 210 

Within the nether tip. 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 



11 



One after 
another. 



His shipmates 
drop down 
dead. 



''One after one, by the star-dogged Moon, 
Too quick for groan or sigh, 
Each turned his face with a ghastly pang. 
And cursed me with his eye. 215 

"Four times fifty living men, 
(And I heard nor sigh nor groan) 
With heavy thump, a lifeless lump, 
They dropped down one by one. 



But Life-in- 
Death begins 
her work on 
the ancient 
Mariner. 



''The souls did from their bodies ily,- 
They fled to bliss or woe! 
And every soul, it passed me by, 
Like the whizz of my cross-bow ! ' ' 



220 



The Wedding- 
Guest feareth 
that a spirit is 
talking to him; 



PART IV 

"I fear thee, ancient Mariner! 

I fear thy skinny hand! 

And thou art long, and lank, and brown. 

As is the ribbed sea-sand. 



225 



But the ancient 
Mariner 
assureth him 
of his bodily 
life, and 
proceedeth 
to relate his 
horrible 
penance. 



'*I fear thee and thy glittering eye, 
And thy skinny hand, so brown." — 
''Fear not, fear not, thou Wedding-Guest! 
This body dropt not down. 

"Alone, alone, all, all alone. 
Alone on a wide, wide sea! 
And never a saint took pity on 
My soul in agony. 



230 



He despiseth 
the creatures 
of the calm, 



"The many men, so beautiful! 

And they all dead did lie: 

And a thousand thousand slimy things 

Lived on; and so did I. 



12 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 



And onvielh 
that they 
should live, 
and so many 
lie dead. 



"I looked upon the rotting sea, 
And drew my eyes away; 
I looked upon the rotting deck, 
And there the dead men lay. 



240 



**I looked to heaven, and tried to pray; 
But or ever a prayer had gusht, 
A wicked whisper came, and made 
My heart as dry as dust. 

''I closed my lids, and kept them close. 

And the balls like pulses beat ; 

For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky 

Lay like a load on my weary eye. 

And the dead were at my feet. 



245 



250 



But the curse 
liveth for him 
in the eye of 
the dead men. 



"The cold sweat melted from their limbs, 
Nor rot nor reek did they : 
The look with which they looked on me 
Had never passed away. 

''An orphan's curse would drag to hell 

A spirit from on high ; 

But oh! more horrible than that 

Is a curse in a dead man 's eye ! 

Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse, 

And yet I could not die. 



256 



260 



In his loneli- 
ness and fixed- 
ness he yearn- 
eth towards the 
Journeying 
Moon, and the 
stars that still 
.sojourn, yet 
still move on- 
ward; and 
everywhere 
the blue sky 
belongs to 
them, and is 
their appointed 



''The moving Moon went up the sky. 
And no where did abide: 
Softly she was going up, 
And a star or two beside — 

"Her beams bemocked the sultry main. 
Like April hoar-frost spread ; 



26.5 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 



13 



rest, and their 
native country 
and their own 
natural homes, 
which they 
enter unan- 
nounced, as 
lords that are 
certainly ex- 
pected, and yet 
there is a silent 
joy at their 
arrival. 

By the light of 
the Moon he 
beholdeth God's 
creatures of 
the great calm. 



But where the ship's huge shadow lay, 

The charmed water burnt alway 270 

A still and awful red. 

'^ Beyond the shadow of the ship, 

I watched the water-snakes: 

They moved in tracks of shining white, 

And when they reared, the elfish light 275 

Fell off in hoary flakes. 



"Within the shadow of the ship 

I watched their rich attire : 

Blue, glossy green, and velvet black. 

They coiled and swam; and every track 

"Was a flash of golden fire. 



280 



Their beauty 
and their 
happiness. 



He blesseth 
them in his 
heart. 



"0 happy living things! no tongue 

Their beauty might declare : 

A spring of love gushed from my heart, 

And I blessed them unaware ! 

Sure my kind saint took pity on me 

And I blessed them unaware. 



285 



The spell be- 
gins to break. 



''The selfsame moment I could pray; 
And from my neck so free 
The Albatross fell off, and sank 
Like lead into the sea." 



290 



PART V 

' ' Oh sleep ! it is a gentle thing, 
Beloved from pole to pole! 
To Mary Queen the praise be given ! 
She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven, 
That slid into my soul. 



295 



14 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 



By grace of the 
holy Mother, 
the ancient 
Mariner is re- 
freshed with 
rain. 



*'The silly buckets on the deck, 

That had so long remained, 

I dreamt that they were filled with dew 

And when I awoke, it rained. 



300 



**My lips were wet, my throat was cold. 
My garments all were dank; 
Sure I had drunken in my dreams, 
And still my body drank. 



**I moved, and could not feel my limbs 
I was so light — almost 
I thought that I had died in sleep, 
And was a blessed ghost. 



305 



He heareth 
sounds and 
seeth strange 
sights and 
commotions in 
the sky and 
the element. 



**And soon I heard a roaring wind: 
It did not come anear; 
But with its sound it shook the sails. 
That were so thin and sere. 



310 



* * The upper air burst into life ! 
And a hundred fire-flags sheen. 
To and fro they were hurried about ! 
And to and fro, and in and out, 
The wan stars danced between. 



315 



*'And the coming wind did roar more loud, 
And the sails did sigh like sedge; 
And the rain poured down from one black cloud 
The Moon was at its edge. 



320 



"The thick black cloud was cleft, and still 

The Moon was at its side : 

Like waters shot from some high crag, 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 



15 



The lightning fell with never a jag, 325 

A river steep and wide. 

The bodies of **The loud wind never reached the ship, 

the ship's crew 

are inspired. Yet now the ship moved on! 

and the ship ^ 

moves on; Beneath the. lightning and the Moon 

The dead men gave a groan. 330 

''They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose, 

Nor spake, nor moved their eyes ; 

It had been strange, even in a dream. 

To have seen those dead men rise. 

''The helmsman steered, the ship moved on; 335 

Yet never a breeze up blew; 

The mariners all 'gan work the ropes. 

Where they were wont to do; 

They raised their limbs like lifeless tools — 

We were a ghastly crew. 340 



But not by the 
souls of the 
men, nor by 
demons of 
earth or middle 
air, but by a 
blessed troop of 
angelic spirits, 
sent down by 
the invocation 
of the guardian 
saint. 



"The body of my brother's son 
Stood by me, knee to knee: 
The body and I pulled at one rope, 
But he said nought to me." 

"I fear thee, ancient Mariner!" 345 

"Be calm, thou Wedding-Guest! 

'T was not those souls that fled in pain, 

Which to their corses came again, 

But a troop of spirits blest: 

' ' For when it dawned— they dropped their arms, 35o 
And clustered round the mast ; 
Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths. 
And from their bodies passed. 



16 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 



''Around, around, flew each sweet sound, 
Then darted to the Sun; 
Slowly the sounds came back again, 
Now mixed, now one by one. 



355 



*' Sometimes a-dropping from the sky 
I heard the skylark sing ; 
Sometimes all little birds that are, 
How they seemed to fill the sea and air 
With their sweet jargoning ! 



' ' And now 't was like all instruments, 

Now like a lonely flute; 

And now it is an angel's song, 

That makes the heavens be mute. 



365 



"It ceased; yet still the sails made on 

A pleasant noise till noon, 

A noise like of a hidden brook 

In the leafy month of June, 

That to the sleeping woods all night 

Singeth a quiet tunc. 



370 



"Till noon we quietly sailed on, 
Yet never a breeze did breathe : 
Slowly and smoothly went the ship, 
Moved onward from beneath. 



375 



The lonesome 
Spirit from the 
south pole 
carries on the 
ship as far as 
the Line, in 
obedience to 
the angelic 
troop, but still 
requireth 
ven seance. 



"Under the keel nine fathom deep, 
From the land of mist and snow, 
The spirit slid : and it was he 
That made the ship to go. 
The sails at noon left off their tune. 
And the ship stood still also. 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 



17 



^'The Sun, right up above the mast, 
Had fixed her to the ocean : 
But in a minute she 'gan stir, 
With a short uneasy motion — 
Backwards and forwards half her length, 
With a short uneasy motion. 



385 



*'Then like a pawing horse let go. 
She made a sudden bound: 
It flung the blood into my head, 
And I fell down in a swound. 



The Polar 
Spirit's fellow 
demons, the 
invisible inhabi- 
tants of the 
element, take 
part in liis 
wron,^; and two 
of them relate, 
one to the 
other, that 
penance long 
and heavy for 
the ancient 
Mariner hath 
been accorded 
to the Polar 
Spirit, who 
returneth 
southward. 



"How long in that same fit I lay, 
I have not to declare ; 
But ere my living life returned, 
I heard, and in my soul discerned. 
Two voices in the air. 

^' 'la it her quoth one, 'is this the man? 
By him who died on cross, 
With his cruel bow he laid full low 
The harmless Albatross. 



395 I 



400 



" 'The Spirit who bideth by himself 
In the land of mist and snow^, 
He loved the bird that loved the man 
Who shot him w^ith his bow.' 



405 



''The other was a softer voice, 

As soft as honey- dew : 

Quoth he, 'The man hath penance done, 

And penance more will do.' " 



18 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 

PART VI 

FIRST VOICE 

" 'But tell me, tell me! speak again, 
Thy soft response renewing — 
What makes that ship drive on so fast? 
What is the Ocean doing?' 



410 



SECOND VOICE 

*' * Still as a slave before his lord, 
The Ocean hath no blast ; 
His great bright eye most silently 
Up to the Moon is cast — 



415 



^' 'If he may know which way to go; 
For she guides him smooth or grim. 
See, brother, see ! how graciously 
She looketh down on him.' 



420 



The Mariner 
hath been cast 
into a trance; 
for tlie angelic 
power causeth 
the vessel to 
drive north- 
ward, faster 
than human 
life could 
endure. 



FIRST VOICE 

" 'But Avhy drives on that ship so fast, 
Without or wave or wind?' 

SECOND VOICE 

" 'The air is cut away before, 
And closes from behind.' 



425 



" 'Fly, brother, fly! more high, more high! 
Or we shall be belated : 
For slow and slow that ship will go. 
When the Mariner's trance is abated.' 



The super- 
natural motion 
is retarded ". 
the Mariner 



"I woke, and we were sailing on 
As in a gentle weather: 



430 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 



19 



'T was night, calm night, the moon was high. 
The dead men stood together. 



''All stood together on the deck, 
For a charnel-dungeon fitter: 
All fixed on me their stony eyes, 
That in the Moon did glitter. 



435 



''The pang, the curse, with which they died, 
Had never passed away: 

I could not draw my eyes from theirs, 440 

Nor turn them up to pray. 

''And now this spell was snapt; once more 

I viewed the ocean green, 

And looked far forth, yet little saw 

Of what had else been seen — 445 



"Like one, that on a lonesome road 

Doth walk in fear and dread, 

And having once turned round, walks on, 

And turns no more his head; 

Because, he knows, a frightful fiend 

Doth close behind him tread. 



450 



"But soon there breathed a w4nd on me, 
Nor sound nor motion made: 
Its path was not upon the sea, 
In ripple or in shade. 

' ' It raised my hair, it fanned my cheek 
Like a meadow-gale of spring — 
It mingled strangely with my fears, 
Yet it felt like a welcoming. 



455 



20 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 



' * Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship, 
Yet she sailed softly too : 
Sweetly, sweetly blew the breeze- 
On me alone it blew. 



460 



And the an- 
cient Mariner 
beholdeth 
his native 
country. 



''Oh! dream of joy! is this indeed 
The lighthouse top I see? 
Is this the hill ? is this the kirk ? 
Is this mine own countree? 



465 



''We drifted o'er the harbor-bar, 
And I with sobs did pray — 
'0 let me be awake, my God! 
Or let me sleep alway.' 



470 



"The harbor-bay was clear as glass, 
So smoothly it was strewTi ! 
And on the bay the moonlight lay, 
And the shadow of the Moon. 



475 



"The rock shone bright, the kirk no less. 
That stands above the rock: 
The moonlight steeped in silentness 
The steady weathercock. 



The angelic 
spirits leave 
the dead 
bodies. 



"And the bay was white with silent light 
Till, rising from the same. 
Full many shapes, that shadows were, 
In crimson colors came. 



480 



And appear 
in their own 
forms of liffht. 



"A little distance from the prow 
Those crimson shadows were: 
I turned my eyes upon the deck — 
Oh, Christ ! what saw I there ! 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 21 

"Each corse lay flat, lifeless and flat, 

And, by the holy rood ! 

A man all light, a seraph-man, 490 

On every corse there stood. 

''This seraph-band, each waved his hand: 

It was a heavenly sight! 

They stood as signals to the land, 

Each one a lovely light; 495 

''This seraph-band, each waved his hand. 
No voice did they impart — 
No voice ; but oh ! the silence sank 
Like music on my heart. 

"But soon I heard the dash of oars, 600 

I heard the Pilot's cheer; 

My head was turned perforce away, 

And I saw a boat appear. 

"The Pilot and the Pilot's boy, 

I heard them coming fast : 505 

Dear Lord in Heaven ! it was a joy 

The dead men could not blast. 

' ' I saw a third — I heard his voice : 

It is the Hermit good! 

He singeth loud his goodly hymns 5io 

That he makes in the wood. 

He'll shrieve my soul, he'll wash away 

The Albatross's blood. 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 

PART vn 



The Hermit of ' ' Tlils Hemiit i^oocl livGs ill that wood 

the wood, ^ 



Which slopes down to the sea. 
How loudly his sweet voice he rears! 
He loves to talk with marineres 
That come from a far countree. 



515 



''He kneels at morn, and noon, and eve — 
He hath a cushion plump : 
It is the moss that wholly hides 
The rotted old oak-stump. 



520 



' ' The skiff-boat neared : I heard them talk, 
'Why, this is strange, I trow! 
Where are those lights so many and fair, 
That signal made but now?' 



525 



Approacheth 
the ship with 
wonder. 



*' 'Strange, by my faith!' the Hermit said — 

'And they answered not our cheer! 

The planks looked warped ! and see those sails, 

How thin they are and sere ! 530 

I never saw aught like to them, 

Unless perchance it were 



" 'Brown skeletons of leaves that lag 
My forest-brook along; 
When the ivy-tod is heavy with snow, 
And the owlet Avhoops to the wolf below, 
That eats the she-wolf's young.' 



535 



" 'Dear Lord! it hath a fiendish look' — 
(The Pilot made reply,) 
'I am a-f eared' — 'Push on, push on!' 
Said the Hermit cheerilv. 



540 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 



23 



"The boat came closer to the ship, 
But I nor spake nor stirred; 
The boat came close beneath the ship, 
And straight a sound was heard. 



545 



The ship 
suddenly 
sinketh. 



''Under the water it rumbled on, 
Still louder and more dread: 
It reached the ship, it split the bay, 
The ship went down like lead. 



The ancient 
Mariner is 
saved in the 
Pilot's boat. 



"Stunned by that loud and dreadful sound, 

Which sky and ocean smote, 

Like one that hath been seven days drowned, 

My body lay afloat ; 

But swift as dreams, myself I found 

Within the Pilot's boat. 



550 



555 



^'Upon the whirl, where sank the ship. 
The boat spun round and round ; 
And all was still, save that the hill 
Was telling of the sound. 



''I moved my lips— the Pilot shrieked, 
And fell down in a fit ; 
The holy Hermit raised his eyes, 
And prayed where he did sit. 

"I took the oars: the Pilot's boy. 

Who now doth crazy go, 

Laughed loud and long, and all the while 

His eyes went to and fro. 

'Ha! ha!' quoth he, 'full plain I see, 

The Devil knows how to row.' 



560 



665 l 



24 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 



"And now, all in my own coimtree, 

I stood on the firm land! 

The Hermit stepped forth from the boat, 

And scarcely he could stand. 



570 



The ancient 
Mariner ear- 
nestly entreat- 
eth the Hermit 
to shrieve 
him; and the 
penance of life 
falls on him. 



'* '0 shrieve me, shrieve me, holy man!' 
The Hermit crossed his brow. 
' Say quick, ' quoth he, ' I bid thee say — 
"What manner of man art thou?' 



575 



"Forthwith this frame of mine was wrenched 

With a woful agony, 

Which forced me to begin my tale ; 

And then it left me free. 



'* Since then, at an uncertain hour, 
That agony returns : 



And ever and 
anon through- 
out his future 
life an agony 

wm to^tmvei And till my ghastly tale is told, 

from land to ^, . , . , . , 

land. This heart withm me burns. 



585 



"I pass, like night, from land to land; 

I have strange power of speech ; 

That moment that his face I see, 

I know the man that must hear me : 

To him my tale I teach. 590 

"What loud uproar bursts from that door! 

The wedding-guests are there ; 

But in the garden-bower the bride 

And bride-maids singing are: 

And hark the little vesper bell, 595 

Which biddeth me to prayer! 



**0 Wedding-Guest! this soul hath boon 
Alone on a wide, wide sea: 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 

So lonely 't was, that God himself 
Scarce seemed there to be. 



25 



600 



''0 sweeter than the marriage-feast, 
'T is sweeter far to me, 
To walk together to the kirk 
With a goodly company! — 



"To walk together to the kirk, 

And all together pray, 

While each to his great Father bends 

Old men, and babes, and loving friends, 

And youths and maidens gay ! 



605 



And to teach, 
by his own 
example, love 
and reverence 
to all things 
that God made 
and loveth. 



' ' Farewell, farewell ! but this I tell 
To thee, thou Wedding-Guest! 
He prayeth well, who loveth well 
Both man and bird and beast. 



610 



''He prayeth best, who loveth best 
All things both great and small; 
For the dear God who loveth us, 
He made and loveth all." 



615 



The Mariner, whose eye is bright, 
Whose beard with age is hoar. 
Is gone : and now the Wedding-Guest 
Turned from the bridegroom's door. 



620 



He went like one that hath been stunned. 
And is of sense forlorn: 
A sadder and a wiser man, 
He rose the morrow morn. 



625 



NOTES 
[The numbers refer to lines in the text] 

In 1765 Bishop Percy published his "Reliques of Ancient English 
Poetry" — a collection of old ballads once popular in England, but in danger 
of being quite forgotten because not preserved in print. His book was 
received with such interest as to create anew a taste for those quaint 
verse-stories, composed in the olden days partly by the people themselves 
and partly by the minstrels who wandered from place to place, singing 
and reciting the traditional history of their land. This ballad-revival 
inspired many poets of the time to try their hand at ballad-writing. 
Among those who felt the keenest interest in the revival were Coleridge 
and his close friend William Wordsworth, who published in 1798 a volume 
entitled "Lyrical Ballads." The purpose and scope of this work are stated 
in Coleridge's "Biographia Literaria" (Chapter XIV) : 

"During the first year that Mr. Wordsworth and I were neighbours, 
our conversations turned frequently on the two cardinal points of poetry, 
the power of exciting the sympathy of the reader by a faithful adherence 
to the truth of nature, and the power of giving the interest of novelty by 
the modifying colours of imagination. The sudden charm, which accidents 
of light and shade, which moonlight or sunset, diffused over a known and 
familiar landscape, appeared to represent the practicability of combining 
both. These are the poetry of nature. The thought suggested itself (to 
which of us I do not recollect) that a series of poems might be composed 
of two sorts. In the one, the incidents and agents were to be, in part at 
least, supernatural ; and the excellence aimed at was to consist in the 
interesting of the affections by the dramatic truth of such emotions, as 
would naturally accompany such situations, supposing them real. And 
real in this sense they have been to every human being wlio, from whatever 
source of delusion, has at any time believed himself under supernatural 
agency. For the second class, subjects were to be chosen from ordinary 
life; the characters and incidents were to be such as will be found in 
every village and its vicinity where there is a meditative and feeling mind 
to seek after them, or to notice them when they present themselves. 

"In this idea originated the plan of the 'Lyrical Ballads,' in which it 
was agreed that my endeavours should be directed to persons and charac- 
ters supernatural, or at least romantic; yet so as to transfer from our 
inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to 
procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of dis- 
belief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith. Mr. Wordsworth, on 
the other hand, was to propose to himself as his object, to give the charm 
of novelty to things of every day, and to excite a feeling analogous to the 
supernatural, by awakening the mind's attention from the lethargy of 
custom, and directing it to the loveliness and wonders of the world before 
us; an inexhaustible treasure, but for which, in consequence of the film 
of familiarity and selfish solicitude, we have eyes, yet see not, ears that 
hear not, and hearts that neither feel nor understand. 

With this view I wrote 'The Ancient Mariner.' " 

26 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 27 

The immediate cause for the writing of this poem has been told by 
Wordsworth, who in the autumn of 1798, with his sister and Coleridge, 
took a walking-trip to Linton and the Valley of Stones: "As our united 
funds were very small, we agreed to defray the expense of the tour by 
writing a poem, to be sent to the ISlew Monthly Magazine. Accordingly 
we set off . . . and in the course of this walk was planned the poem 
of 'The Ancient Mariner/ . . . We began the composition together 
on that, to me, memorable evening. . . . As we endeavoured to pro- 
ceed conjointly (I speak of the same evening) our respective manners 
proved so widely different that it would have been quite presumptuous in 
me to do anything but separate from an undertaking upon which I could 
only have been a clog. . . . 'The Ancient Mariner' grew and grew 
till it became too important for our first object, which was limited to our 
expectation of five pounds ; and we began to think of a volume, which was 
to consist, as Mr. Coleridge has told the world, of poems chiefly on super- 
natural subjects, taken from common life, but looked at, as much as might 
be, through an imaginative medium." 

"The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere, In Seven Parts," appeared anony- 
mously in "Lyrical Ballads" the following year. While not a ballad in 
the strictest sense of the word, the poem carries out the ballad idea in 
its structure and details; in the extreme simplicity of its style and diction, 
and in the employment of devices common to ballad poetry. These last 
are pointed out as they occur, in the notes which follow. As it originally 
appeared, it was full of archaic words, phrases, and spellings, most of which 
were discarded by the poet later, and comprised a number of stanzas he 
afterward omitted. It is not to our purpose to consider all his changes: 
the poem is given here as he left it after many thorough revisions. 

Rime: rhyme. The former spelling is correct, etymologically, and is 
now used by many writers in place of the latter. 

Facile credo, etc. This motto, from Thomas Burnet's "Archaelologiae 
Philosophicse," prefaced the poem for the first time in "Sibylline Leaves," 
in 1817. In the Mead and Toxton edition of 1736 the translation is given 
thus: "I can easily believe that there are more Invisible than Visible 
beings in the Universe. But who will declare to us the family of all these, 
and acquaint us with the Agreements, Differences, and peculiar Talents 
which are to be found among them? . . . It is true. Human Wit has 
always desired a knowledge of these things, though it has never yet 
attained it. I will own that it is very profitable, sometimes to contemplate 
in the Mind, as in a Draught, the Image of the greater and better World; 
lest the Soul, being accustomed to the Trifles of this present Life, should 
contract itself too much, and altogether rest in mean Cogitations; but, in 
the mean Time, we must take Care to keep to the Truth, and observe 
Moderation, that we may distinguish Certain from Uncertain Things, and 
Day from Night." 

Glosses. As the poem originally appeared, there were no marginal 
readings, these being added in 1817. In the first edition the poem was 
preceded by an Argument, which in the second was a good deal enlarged 
and read thus: "How a Ship having first sailed to the Equator, was 
driven by storms, to the cold Country towards the South Pole; how the 
Ancient Mariner, cruelly, and in contempt of the laws of hospitality, killed 
a Sea-bird; and how he was followed by many strange Judgments; and 



28 THE ANCIENT MARINER 

in what manner lie came back to his own Country." After the second 
edition this Argument was discarded altogether by the poet. 

1. It is. This abrupt form of introduction — in which the speaker is 
merely suggested — is found in many of the old ballads. 

2. one of three. Note how much more effective the tale is made by 
the part played by the Wedding-Guest, with his unwillingness to listen; 
the fascination the Ancient Mariner gains over him, until he is fairly 
spellbound; his occasional interruptions, showing the effect upon him of 
the old man's words and appearance. 

5. The Bridegroom's doors, etc. The weirdness of the Mariner's tale 
is heightened by the references, here and there, to the natural, common- 
place details of the wedding. 

8. May'st hear, etc. "Thou" is understood here. The dropping of the 
subject emphasizes the impatience of the Wedding-Guest to be gone. 

9-20. He holds, etc. Note the effectiveness of the contrast between 
the merriment of the wedding-feast and the horror the Mariner excites in 
the Wedding-Guest. 

12. Eftsoons (from the Anglo-Saxon words aeft, afterward, and sona, 
soon): immediately, forthwith. (Archaic.) 

15-16. And listens, etc. Wordsworth suggested these two lines. 

21-50. The ship was cheered, etc. William Watson, in his "Excursions 
in Criticism," says: "There is perhaps something rather inartistic in his 
undignified haste to convey us to the aesthetically necessary region. In 
some half-dozen stanzas, beginning with 'The ship was cleared,' we find 
ourselves crossing the line and driven far towards the Southern Pole." 
This very haste in the narrative, like the abruptness with w^hich the old 
man begins his tale (line 10), indicates the narrator's intense earnestness 
and the necessity he feels of telling his story at once after he has gained 
the attention of the Wedding-Guest (from line 21 on). 

22. drop: sail tow^ard the sea. 

23. kirk: church. This dialect word, used to carry out the ballad 
idea, is not really appropriate here, as we see later that the Mariner is 
a Roman Catholic and as such he would hardly have used the word. 

25. upon the left. That is, the ship was sailing south. 
30. over the mast at noon. At viiiat point would the sun be directly 
above the ship at noon, as he is about to describe it? 

35. Nodding their heads. But the singular form of the verb is used. 
This lack of agreement, like the lack of coherence of tenses, is charac- 
teristic of ballad poetry. 

36. minstrelsy: musicians. 

39-40. And thus, etc. See lines 19 and 20. This sort of repetition is 
a device common to the old ballads. 

40. The bright-eyed Mariner. Notice how vivid a picture is given 
merely by the use of such phrases as "long gray beard," "glittering eye," 
"skinny hand," "gray-beard loon," "bright-eyed Mariner." No detailed 
description of "the ancient man" could have given us a clearer picture of 
him. 

41. Storm-blast. There are several of these pleonastic compounds in 
the poem. Storm and blast are one and the same here. 

46. As who pursued. "One" and "is" are understood here. 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 29 

47. Still: constantly. Treads the shadow of his foe conveys the idea 
of being very closely followed. Supposing the pursuer to be between the 
pursued and the sun, his shadow would extend toward the pursued, who 
could not be touched by it unless the pursuer were close upon him. 

55. drifts: drifting clouds of mist, clifts: cliffs; that is, icebergs. 

57. ken: see. 

62. swound: swoon; faint. (Archaic.) 

63. Albatross. Wordsworth tells us that he himself suggested to 
Coleridge the killing of the albatross. He says: "Some crime was to be 
committed which should bring upon the old navigator, as Coleridge always 
delighted to call him, the spectral persecution, as a consequence of that 
crime, and his own wanderings. I had been reading in Shelvock's Voyages 
a day or two before, that while doubling Cape Horn they frequently saw 
albatrosses in that latitude, the largest of sea fowl, some extending their 
wings twelve or fifteen feet. 'Suppose,' said I, 'you represent him as having 
killed one of these birds upon entering the South Sea, and that the tutelary 
spirits of those regions take upon them to avenge the crime?' The inci- 
dent was thought fit for the purpose and adopted accordingly." 

64. thorough. In olden times the same word as "through." We meet 
with it frequently in Shakespeare and other early English poets. 

67. eat (pronounced et) : eaten. Now archaic as the past participle 
of the verb "to eat." 

76. vespers: literally, the hour of evening prayer in the Roman Catho- 
lic Church. Here the expression means, simply, "evenings." 

77. Whiles. Archaic form of "while." fog-smoke. See note on line 41. 
79. God save thee. See note on line 2. This interruption greatly 

intensifies the gruesomeness of the Mariner's tale. 

83. The Sun now rose upon the right because the ship was sailing 
north. See line 25. 

97. Nor . . . nor: neither . . . nor. "But" is understood before 
like. Head is used here for "face." See Matt. XVII. 2., and Rev. I. 16. 

98. uprist. In olden times commonly used for "uprose." 

104. followed free. This is 'the original reading. In a later edition the 
poet made it "streamed off free," saying of the other phrase: "I had not 
been long on board a ship before I perceived that this was the image as seen 
by the spectator from the shore, or from another vessel." Later, however, 
he restored the original reading. 

125. slimy things. Coleridge had used this idea in his "Destiny of 

Nations" : 

As what time after long and pestful calms, 
With slimy shapes and miscreated life 
Poisoning the vast Pacific, etc. 

128. death-fires. Perhaps the reference is to the phosphorescent lights 
to be seen at sea on the surface of the water and in the rigging of vessels; 
but probably he meant similar lights which once were supposed to appear 
over dead bodies, or in houses where a death was to occur. In his "Ode on 
the Departing Year" we read: 

Mighty armies of the dead 

Dance, like death-fires, round her tomb. 



30 THE ANCIENT MARINER 

129. like a witch's oils. Oils, that is, which burn with a weird and 
lurid light. 

131. Gloss. Josephus: a noted Jewish historian who lived in the first 
century A. D. Michael Sellus was a Byzantine philosopher of the eleventh 
century, among whose writings is a "Dialogue on the Operation of Demons." 

142. About my neck. Notice that Parts I, II, IV, and VI end with an 
allusion to tlie albatross. 

152. I wist. Wist means "know." Coleridge uses I wist here, however, 
in the sense of "iwis," an archaic word meaning "certainly." 

164. Gramercy (from the Old French grand merci, many thanks) is 
used here, as often in early English poetry, merely as an exclamation of 
surprise, not as an expression of gratitude. 

169. without a breeze. The idea of a phantom ship is, of course, not 
original Avith Coleridge; we have it in the story of the Flying Dutchman 
and various other tales, ancient and modern. Wordsworth tells us that 
Coleridge patterned his after one seen by a friend of his in a dream. 
But, wherever he got the idea, his phantom ship is quite different from 
those of other stories, 

178. Heaven's Mother: the Virgin Mary. See note on line 23. 

184. gossameres: fine cobwebs. 

185. her ribs. The first and second editions of "The Ancient Mariner" 
had the two following stanzas here: 

Are those her naked ribs, which fleck'd 
The sun that did behind them peer? 
And are those two all, all the crew, 
That woman and her fleshless Pheere? 

His bones are black with many a crack. 
All black and bare, I ween; 
Jet-black and bare, save where with rust 
Of mouldy damps and charnel crust 
They 're patched with purple and green. 

197. I've won! Life-in-Death wins the Ancient ^lariner, while the 
rest of the crew belong to Death. 

198. thrice. Three is one of the mystical numbers used in charms. 
The student will recall the witches' incantations in "Macbeth": 

Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine. 
And thrice again to make up nine: — 
Peace! — the charm's wound up. 

In the first edition this stj\nza (lines 195-198) was followed by: 

A grust of wind sterte up behind 

And whistled thro* his bones; 

Thro' the holes of his tyos and the hole of his mouth. 

Half-whistles and half-groans. 

199. Gloss, courts of the Sun. That is, the tropics. 

200. At one stride. Any one wlio has been in tropical or semitropical 
countries can appreciate the aptness of this expression. 

209. clomb: climbed. (Archaic.) 

210-211. one bright star, etc. Originally this read "almost atween the 
tips," but later the poet substituted the reading given here, adding this 
note: "It is a common superstition among sailors that something evil 



THE ANCIENT MARINER 31 

is about to happen whenever a star dogs the moon." James Dykes Camp- 
bell gives this note in his edition of Coleridge's poems, with the comment: 
"But no sailor ever saw a star within the nether tip of a horned moon." 

222-223. every soul, etc. It was once believed that the soul might be 
heard leaving the body of a person who had just died. 

223. my cross-bow. The mention of this weapon places the date of 
the Mariner's story before the sixteenth century, as cross-bows were not 
used later. 

224-229. I fear thee. See notes on lines 2 and 79. "With what con- 
summate art are we left to imagine the physical traces which the Mariner's 
long agony had left behind it, by a method far more terrible than any direct 
description — the effect, namely, which the sight of him produces upon 
others. — Traill's "Life of Coleridge." 

226-227. And thou art long, etc. Wordsworth suggested these two 
lines. 

245. or ere: ere, before. (Archaic.) 

261. seven days, seven nights. Seven, like three, has always been 
considered a mystic number, 

273. water-snakes. Brandl tells us that Coleridge seems to have taken 
great interest in such reptiles, his notebook covering the period in which 
he wrote "The Ancient Mariner" having contained "long paragraphs upon 
the alligators, boas, and crocodiles of antediluvian times." 

285. I blessed them. His hard, rebellious heart is softened and imme- 
diately the curse is diminished. 

290-291. The Albatross fell off, etc. This is the turning-point of the 
story. 

294. Mary Queen: the Virgin Mary. See note on line 33. 

297. silly: frail, weak; here, useless. 

314. fire-flags. A reference, undoubtedly, to the Northern Lights. 
Hearne wrote in 1795: "In still nights I have frequently heard them make 
a rustling and crackling noise, like the waving of a large flag in a fresh 
gale of wind." Coleridge, who is known to have read Hearne's book, may 
have had this description in mind, sheen is used here, as once commonly, 
as an adjective to mean "bright." See line 56. 

349-366. a troop of spirits blest. Contrast this with the previous 
description of the dead men, lines 331-344, 

407. honey-dew: a sweet, sticky substance found on plants, supposed 
to be the food of fairies. 

435. charnel-dungeon : a vault in which dead bodies are placed. 

464-467. dream of joy! See lines 21-24. 

467. countree. This archaic form of "country" is frequently used in 
ballads. 

472. Harbor-bay. See note on line 41, 

489. rood: cross. By "holy rood," of course, is meant the cross on 
which Christ was crucified. In olden times it was not considered wrong to 
swear by sacred objects and names. 

512. shrieve (shrive) : to hear confession and grant absolution, 

523. skiff-boat. See note on line 41. 

524. trow: think. 

535. ivy-tod: ivy bush or clump of ivy. (Dialect.) 
560-569. the Pilot shrieked. See note on lines 224-229. 



32 THE ANCIENT MARINER 

575. crossed his brow. That is, made upon it the sign of the cross, to 
avert any evil influence which the Mariner might seek to exert. See note 
on line 23 and line 294. 

582-590. since then, etc. We have seen how (lines 287-291) the curse 
was diminished, but as the spirit said (in lines 408-409), the Mariner must 
continue to do penance for his sin. I know the man, etc. See line 18. 

591-596. What loud uproar, etc. The same device of contrast is used 
here — to heighten the eff"ect of the Mariner's words — as was used in the 
opening stanzas of the poem. See note on lines 9-20. 

612-617. He prayeth well, etc. A friend of the poet once told him 
that she admired "The Ancient Mariner" very much, but that it had two 
faults — it was improbable and it had no moral. "As for the probability," 
Coleridge says, "I owned that that might admit some question; but as. 
to the want of a moral, I told her that in my own judgment the poem 
had too much; and that the only, or chief fault, if I might say so, was 
the obtrusion of the moral sentiment so openly on the reader as a principle 
or cause of action in a work of such pure imagination. It ought to have 
had no more moral than the Arabian Nights' tale of the merchant's sitting 
down to eat dates by the side of a well, and throwing the shells aside, and 
lo! a genie starts up, and says he must kill the aforesaid merchant, because 
one of the date shells had, it seems, put out the eye of the genie's son." — 
Table Talk. 

623. of sense forlorn: bereft of his senses. 



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BECKLEY-CARDY COMPANY PubUshers CHICAGO 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




BEST BOOKS AND HEL: 

OF ALL GRA 

Morning Exercises for All the Year. 1 imii™--' — ^ ^gg q ^ 

of the "Nixie Bunny" books, etc. ^v^Aictiuis over 300 exercises, 
arranged day by day, there being an exercise for each morning 
of the ten school months, beginning with the first day in Sep- 
tember and ending with the last day in June. 252 large pages. 
Cloth. Price, 60 cents. 

Language Games for All Grades. By Alhambra G. Deming, Princi- 
pal Washington School, Winona, Minn. Designed to establish 
the habit of correct speech and to increase the child's vocabulary. 
90 pages. Cloth. Price (with 53 cards for pupils* use), 65 cents. 

Easy Things to Draw. By D. R. Augsburg. A teacher's handbook, 
with 203 simple drawings for reproducing on the blackboard. 
77 large pages. Paper. Price, 30 cents. 

Simplex Class Record. The most convenient, compact and practical 
teacher's class book published. Provides space for 432 names. 
76 pages, ruled in three colors. Size, 4J4x7H inches. Cloth. 
Price, 30 cents. 

Simplex Seat Plan. A simple card and pocket device for keeping a 
correct list of the pupils for easy reference. Size, 6x9 inches. 
Cloth. Price (with 100 cards), 35 cents. 

District-School Dialogues. By Marie Irish. A collection of twenty- 
five new, humorous dialogues for children of all ages. 160 pages. 
Paper. Price, 30 cents. 

The Best Christmas Book. By Joseph C. Sindelar. Dialogues, reci- 
tations, songs, drills, pantomimes, tableaux, etc., for Christmas 
entertainment. 192 pages. Paper. Price, 30 cents. 

Best Memory Gems. Selected and edited by Joseph C. Sindelar. Con- 
tains 400 of the choicest gems culled from the best in litera- 
ture, and indexed by authors, by first lines, and by sentiment. 
For primary, intermediate and grammar grades. 64 pages. 
Paper. Price, 15 cents. 

Best Primary Recitations. By Winifred A. Hoag. Over 200 original 
recitations for first and second grades. 88 pages. Paper. Price, 
15 cents. 

Best Primary Songs. By Amos M. Kellogg. Nearly sixty songs for 
primary and ungraded schools. 48 large pages. Paper. Price, 
15 cents. 

Merry Melodies. By S. C. Hanson. A book of school songs. Over 
one-half million copies already sold. 64 large pages. Paper. 
Price, 15 cents. 

128-page illustrated Catalogue of Books mailed upon request 
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